


Skinned

by tinx_r



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-19
Updated: 2011-03-19
Packaged: 2017-10-17 02:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinx_r/pseuds/tinx_r
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hutch tries to come to terms with what has changed for them, after Sweet Revenge</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skinned

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nicky_Gabriel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicky_Gabriel/gifts).



Hutch's pain was written on Starsky's skin in ruddy lines and pale puckers. The marks of bullets and of the surgeons' knives, where they'd sliced him apart to make him whole once more.

It was all Hutch could do to look at him, stripped down. Every blemish took Hutch back to the cold and fearsome tunnel of the days without Starsky. The tunnel he had believed would be his life from now on.

The pain was insurmountable, the aloneness unfathomable. Without Starsky, Hutch knew he would have become lost in the cold, unforgiving dark. Without Starsky, he wouldn't have cared. Without Starsky... without Starsky, Hutch was already lost.

And every line of Starsky's skin opened the void within him, showed him the road to hell.

"Hutch. Hutch." Starsky came up behind him, laid his cool, living hands on Hutch's shoulders.

Hutch shivered, too afraid to turn around.

But Starsky wasn't afraid. Those strong gentle hands did Hutch's turning for him, and then one hand lay gently against Hutch's cheek. "Don't be afraid," Starsky murmured, thumbing a tear from Hutch's cheek. "I'm still here. You got that? I'm still here. And inside--" Starsky took Hutch's hand in his and laid it over his scarred chest. "Hutch, inside, I'm exactly the same as before. Their bullets can't change me."

Hutch dared to look up at last, into the tenderness, understanding and love in Starsky's eyes. He nodded once, shakily.

Starsky smiled. "They can't change me. And they can't change us. Not unless we let 'em, y'know?"

Hutch hugged him suddenly, holding him tight, exactly as he would have anytime the last ten years. His partner, his dearest friend, his life. "I won't let them, Starsk. I won't, I won't." He fought back sobs.

Starsky stroked his hair. "I knew you wouldn't, blondie. I knew."

Hutch gave up fighting. Starsky already knew everything there was to know about him; even the things Hutch wasn't sure of himself. Holding Starsky close, he let the pain, the fear, go.


End file.
